No Mission / No Margin…Finding Balance.
I’ve always loved the technical aspect of things, creating and seeing my creations come to life. Until just lately(6 months to a year) I’ve never been focused on mission or goals in my company. I think it’s very easy to become Margin or Mission dominant. One always has full attention while the other one end always get neglected and the business suffers.
This seems to be the case with many small businesses, they either get caught up in the dream and neglect the technical aspect or they get caught up in every process and forget why they started(the mission). This is why lots of people who are self-employed or own their own business either burnout or give up. Most small companies started this year also fail.
Also, lots of large companies seem to have a similar problem. Focus is centered on the producing and making more. Eventually they’ll suffer from a lack of trust from consumers as well as their own employees who are being pushed to produce these results.
In terms of this, the true problem isn’t the economy, or credit, or how easy or hard it is to start a company(anyone can start a company). It’s uneven balance orchestrated by the people on top, or in a smaller business, the ones who run/own the company.
The Four Parts of a Healthy Organization
In his book The 8th Habit, From Effectiveness to Greatness, Stephan Covey explains that an organization must have four parts to stay healthy:
Survival(Body)
– The financial health of the organization’s body.
Growth/Development(Mind) Varsity Blues psp
– Development of new products, customer growth, product and business innovation, superior service, competency.
Relationships(Heart) Two for the Money hd – Teamwork, trust, synergy.
Meaning, Mission and Integrity(Spirit)
– The mission of the organization, making a difference in the word.
“The key is balance” – Stephan Covey
The problem is focusing on either mission or margin. Both parts are extremely important and it’s nearly impossible for organizations to operate without the both parts(at least not long term) acting as a whole. Mission(the WHY) is the purpose, vision and values. The Strategy(the HOW) is the accountability, mainly the technical aspect of an organization. The core of Mission+Strategy is Passion, Focus and Execution. All three of these need to exist in both Mission and Strategy.
Understanding why both of these are so important to each other helps you center priorities.
Without mission, your strategy is pointless(because there’s no guidelines or direction), there’s a lack of leadership and direction within the whole company, from the CEO and board, to the employees.
Without the accountability, the strategy, possibilities stay possibilities. There’s no execution in making vision a reality.
I once thought balance caused mediocrity. Now I understand that it’s the other way around. Mediocre people only view one peace of the puzzle, without vision(what the puzzle looks like when it’s done, the picture on the box) there’s no direction in putting the right peace in the right place, it doesn’t matter where you put the peaces because no way is really the right way when mission and vision is absent. However a puzzle doesn’t put it’s self together when you open the box. That’s why strategy and execution are important in accomplishing the end result. The WHY/WHO, and the HOW/WHEN are equality important to each other. Without the HOW/WHEN(what we need to do) the WHY/WHO(what we want to accomplish, the vision) is just an allusion.
Vacancy the movie At the individual level.
This not only seems to be the case with businesses. This is also an issue with individuals. Employees, entrepreneurs and business owners. Balance is one of the toughest things to achieve. Finding a split between work/play work/family is hard because of the demands on both sides and our idea that we need to give ourselves to only one. Short sightedness is the problem. Focusing on one peace of the puzzle. Centering life around things like work, money, play causes us to filter our actions around these centers. Staying centered on principles and seeing the whole picture is what creates an effective lifestyle.
This is my new strategy and I hope you’ll consider it also. I’d love to hear from anyone who’s read this. Please leave a comment or give me a shout on Twitter.
Buddy gets a treat and everything else he wants, just for acting cute. He walks over to the closet to where his treats are and rolls over and makes a bunch of noise. If we don’t notice him right to give a way, he resorts to breaking in with brute force, that’s number 3. 
